Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, a podcast where we explore Scottish history and nature.

I'm Jenny and I'm Annie. And in this series we've ladded with my lovely Granny and Papa, who have told us wee nuances of the mid-20th century in rural Scotland.

In this episode, we're going to be learning about the role of the blacksmith, or the smiddy, as your grandfather calls it, and we'll delve into the wider culture, mythology and history of blacksmiths in Scotland.

But first, let's start off nice and simple for anyone who isn't familiar with rural trades.

Annie, what is a smitty?

Okay, so a blacksmith is a metal smith who makes or fixes items usually out of iron or steel by forging them.

Now my grandfather will explain it so much better.

Can you describe a blacksmith to someone that's never been to smiddy and doesn't know what a blacksmith is?

Well, it's just somebody that has to form different shapes in the fire with a an anvil

with red-hot metal, you can.

I.

I mean, what else can you do?

That's what the blacksmith does.

Makes the men and his shoes, horses, of course,

makes the shoes and knocks them on.

So that is all blacksmithing, repairing

implements, plues again, like laying socks, the socks is a bit that digs into the ground.

They all get worn off and you to weld bit sown in the fire.

I love this description. To make shapes with the anvil, with fire and with red hot metal,

in so much Scottish history, we stumble across the uses of fire as something more than

just practical.

Fire is critical in both survival and tradition, but also comes up prominently in myth and folklore.

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